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I love cooking, and the best part about the challenge was getting organically grown vegetables delivered to my house, buying succulent meat from the butchers and getting freshly baked bread from the bakery.

But how much extra was I paying to be environmentally friendly?

A lot, it turned out.

Yes that is me sat on my toilet posing with some toilet roll (Image: Matthew Elmes)

My shop at Lidl on the first day, which consisted of some fruit and veg, some cans of soup and some baguettes, came to £25. The vegetable box cost £15.50. The milk delivered to my door cost 30p more than it would in a shop.

But the real problem was every day items that weren't food, like bog roll.

On Thursday we were down to our last sheet, and I needed to buy some toilet paper pronto. I looked in my two nearest shops, but all the toilet paper was wrapped in plastic.

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Someone I knew suggested buying online on a website called biggreensmile.com. And after a look around to see what else was on offer, I selected to buy three packs of toilet roll (with four rolls in each) wrapped in plastic and plant based cellophane. They were £2.85 each, which seemed reasonable but still pricey, but I wasn’t prepared for the £5 delivery charge.

I normally buy my toilet paper in Lidl, which costs me around £2 for six rolls. So for £6 I can buy 18.

I bought 12 online for £13.55. And it has only just been delivered today - four days later.

The company uses a plant-based cellophane for their products (Image: Sarah Waddington)

And what about the carbon footprint aspect? These toilet rolls are being shipped up and down the country for people to be more environmentally friendly, but what about those extra fumes?

That got me thinking about the wider toiletries industry. What about sanitary towels and tampons? Pretty much every period-related product is plastic wrapped.

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All of these products can be found online and in selected, expensive, stores to purchase plastic-free. But these products need to be made readily available, and at a more reasonable price, in the everyday supermarket.

To go plastic-free you have to be prepared to forward plan, and at times, spend a little bit more.

There was no plastic on the toilet roll - but lots of cardboard around it (Image: Sarah Waddington)

That means picking up a bunch of bananas without wrapping, saying no to those doughnuts and thinking about getting your milk delivered - or else giving it up completely.

No, that's not practical. And no, people aren't going to do it overnight. But if you do one thing this year try living a week without buying plastic, and see if you change your mind.